TAP Program

In 2011, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the "Veterans Opportunity to Work and Hire Heroes Act of 2011" (VOW Act). The VOW Act requires, among other things, that separating service-members must attend the Transition Assistance Program (TAP). The VOW Act also required that the Department of Labor redesign its employment workshop, the largest component of the TAP curriculum, to be more applicable to the realities of today's job market. VETS fulfills this requirement for DOL and manages the implementation of the employment workshop at hundreds of military installations worldwide for thousands of separating service-members.

In 2013, the Department of Defense launched a TAP virtual curriculum through their Joint Knowledge Online (JKO) learning management system. This TAP virtual curriculum is designed to provide service-members who are unable to attend the TAP in-person due to military exigencies with the ability to fulfill their TAP obligations. The Departments of Defense, Veterans' Affairs and Labor were informed that providing the TAP curriculum to veterans and spouses of service-members might be helpful to them too, so the JKO system now provides the full TAP curriculum to anyone who might benefit.